BREAKING NEWS: How will judge react to select board approval of campground?

TREMONT - How will the Maine Business Court react to Monday night’s approval of a consent decree by the select board giving Acadia Wilderness Lodge’s campground on Kelleytown Road approval to open with only a slight modification?

“After reviewing the Consent Agreement, it is abundantly clear that the Select Board has joined  with AWL in an attempt to moot the current lawsuit brought by the Lawsons regarding activities  at AWL 1 by entering into a ‘consent agreement’ that claims to be ‘a full and final settlement’ of all violations on the AWL 1 site,” stated the lawyer for neighbors in a letter to the board just before the vote.

AWL is the smaller of two campgrounds being proffered by the Hopkins Family. It is the subject of a lawsuit charging AWL violated local ordinances by expanding the scope of the project without permission. After being cited for these violations on April 26, the select board last night by a 4-0 vote (Eric Eaton was absent) approved the settlement between the town and AWL to reduce the number of yurts from 11 to eight.

A larger campground of 55 yurts proposed for Tremont Road was also found in violation of ordinances and will be the subject of the appeals board meeting Thursday.

Amy Tchao represents residents and direct abutters, including Cindy and Steve  Lawson; Rachel E. Kohrman Ramos and Reinaldo Ramos; Joshua Perlsweig and Natalie Hamill;  Sarah Fina and Michael Luck; Edwin Davis and Lisbeth Faulkner, Burt Adelman and Lydia  Rogers; Jim and Marianne Welch; Eleanor Andrews; and Samuel Bradbury.

“CTR only learned of the Consent Agreement late last Friday evening when it was suddenly—and  without notice to CTR or its members—added to the Select Board’s agenda for tonight’s (May 2)  meeting.

“The Select Board and AWL cannot seek to improperly resolve issues that are currently being considered by the Business Court in the AWL 1 Lawsuit— which is precisely the result the Consent Agreement appears aimed to achieve. Even if AWL  and the Town could, they could not do so without properly providing notice to the Lawsons and  including them as a party to the Consent Agreement. these circumstances is invalid,” Tchao stated.

“Moreover, the Select Board does not have the authority to execute the Consent Agreement,  because it would ostensibly grant a de facto variance to AWL, which only the Board of Appeals may do. The LUO and the SPRO limit the Select Board’s authority to allow ‘illegal structures . .  . to continue’ only to instances where ‘there is no evidence that the owner acted in bad faith.’

“Here, at least two yurts (depicted as yurts 1 and 7 on the new AWL 1 plan before the Select  Board) have been relocated to areas that fall within the LUO’s fifty-foot lot line setback that  applies to all “campground structures,” thus rendering the yurt structures illegal. There is little  question that AWL acted in bad faith when it sought approval for, and constructed, these two  yurts.

“The Consent Agreement itself lays bare that AWL misrepresented—to the Code  Enforcement Officer (“CEO”)—the size of the yurts that it sought to replace the originally  approved cabin structures, and the new site plan before the Select Board demonstrates that AWL  has constructed the AWL 1 campground in a manner that fails to conform to any site plan  approval previously issued by the Town.

“By entering into this Consent Agreement, the Select Board would also be interfering with the  pending appeal before the Board of Appeals on the 55 unit AWL 2 glampground project. The  Board of Appeals has made a preliminary finding that both campgrounds AWL 1 and AWL 2  should have been considered and reviewed as a single integrated project. This proposed consent  agreement continues to treat AWL 1 separately when the Board of Appeals has already made a  preliminary finding that the 2 projects should be considered a single consolidated project.” 

“Finally, the Select Board’s efforts to presumably resolve this matter shortly before an election,  and while the AWL 1 Lawsuit and CTR’s appeal from the Planning Board’s decision approving  the AWL 2 campground is pending, offends all notions of fair play.”